Used book – Morning Dew, Nadá al Ahdal, Khadija Al Salami

Nada Al-Ahdal is a young Yemeni girl. When she was 11, her parents wanted to marry her off, but she resisted. Thanks to her uncle, she recorded a video that he then posted online, and it went viral.

In the beauty of the Yemeni desert, a little girl opens her eyes. Her name is Nada: "the morning dew." Her life unfolds between playing games, school, and helping with the daily life of a family of seven children. Nada is a smiling and happy child despite the poverty in which she lives. But one day, her carefree existence ends: she overhears her uncle discussing her future marriage on the phone with her father. She can't believe it; for her, marriage means the end: of childhood, of school, of her trust in her father and mother, and even of life, if she thinks of her young aunt who died from her husband's blows. At 11 years old, she firmly opposes her parents: "Go ahead, force me to marry, and I will kill myself!"

Her will and strength of character allowed her to overcome tribal traditions. However, not all other Yemeni girls are so lucky, and many are forced into marriage before puberty, destined for a life of servitude when they don't succumb to the violence and sexual assaults of their husbands.

Nada is not the first or last Yemeni girl in this situation, but her plea for help has rekindled the attention of international media and human rights groups on forced child marriage in Yemen. According to a report published in 2010 by the Yemeni Ministry of Social Affairs, more than a quarter of young women in the country are married before the age of 15.